Sharper Image Literati gets reviewed: finicky, buggy & generally bad

Sharper Image's Literati ereader is already off to a bad start: it costs $159, whereas the third-gen WiFi only Kindle is a mere $139. Still, we could forgive the Literati if the functionality was up to scratch; unfortunately, according to The Digital Reader, that's far from the case. They've found their Literati review unit to be buggy, frustrating to use and - most damningly - unable to actually load ebooks.

The last part is probably the biggest hurdle for an ereader: it refused to recognize standard ePub titles. Now, Sharper Image has added Kobo integration for on-device downloads via WiFi, but the reading experience is significantly undermined by the frequent crashes.

General sluggishness, finicky touch-sensitive page turn buttons that either over-recognize swipes or refuse to respond, and a keyboard that's woefully under-used are the final straw. Their suggestion is to either wait until Sharper Image roll out some new firmware or opt for the Kindle, and we can see most people doing the latter.